Overview
Andrew Lee is a recognized leader in the international antitrust sphere who focuses his practice primarily on cross-border antitrust and competition matters. Over the past 15 years, he has counseled numerous leading international corporations from Asia that have faced high-risk antitrust investigations and litigation–spanning from dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), cathode ray tube (CRT) panels, liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, auto parts, canned tuna, lithium-ion batteries, refined petroleum products and technology platform companies. Andrew has also served as co-lead counsel on several multidistrict litigation cases stemming directly from those investigations. In addition, he actively advises his international clients on merger control matters–including Hart-Scott-Rodino notifications, comprehensive global premerger risk evaluations, as well as representing his clients before the US antitrust agencies.
Due to his role as a “trusted advisor” for many of his Asia-based international clients, Andrew routinely also represents his clients on a wide breadth of matters outside antitrust to support his clients’ high-stakes litigation and investigations needs—including conducting confidential corporate investigations, assessing complex multijurisdictional regulatory compliance and coordinating global product recalls, as well as handling cross-border commercial disputes, discovery and arbitrations.
Andrew started his career at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) during the Clinton administration, where he helped initiate several major antitrust enforcement actions in the consumer goods, energy and retail industries while assisting the FTC’s leadership in setting broad competition law enforcement policies and agenda. Drawing broadly on this experience, Andrew regularly counsels his clients on structuring robust antitrust compliance programs and risk mitigation measures to prevent significant antitrust and business risks within a company.
Andrew regularly represents his international clients on a diverse spectrum of US and global disputes and investigations. Some of his more recent matters include:
- Defending against allegations of trade secret misappropriations in a federal district court for a client in the bioinformatics database industry
- Successfully obtaining a rare default judgment against an opponent for document spoliation conduct in a Section 337 (trade secrets) proceeding before the International Trade Commission (ITC)
- Advising on significant consumer product recalls at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and its counterpart agencies abroad
- Advising Asian clients on the US operational impact from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
- Defending clients in high-profile corruption and fraud investigations initiated by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank
- Defending against putative consumer class actions that alleged violations under the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA)
- Advising on major international arbitrations (under both International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and ad hoc rules) for leading Asian international offshore oil and gas firms involving offshore facilities project delays and cost overruns
- Advising clients on antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations and on appeals to higher judicial bodies
- Conducting global “gap assessments” for clients’ existing privacy and data breach policies under both the evolving US and GDPR regimes
- Advising on and mitigating potential US sanctions risks involving certain business operations in Myanmar and Iran
- Advising clients on major US trade policies under both Trump and Biden administrations
Results
- Co-lead counsel for a leading Korean petroleum refiner in a Department of Justice (DOJ) grand jury antitrust investigation and a parallel civil fraud investigation involving price-fixing conspiracies for the sale of refined fuel to the US Government
- Counsel for LG Energy Solution, Ltd. in the global management of consumer product recall proceedings before the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and other global consumer protection agencies
- Co-lead counsel for LG Energy Solution, Ltd. in a putative consumer class action alleging violations under the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act
- Co-lead counsel for LG Chem, Ltd. in a trade secret misappropriation case concerning the development and the use of certain bioinformatics (genomic database) products
- Chief antitrust compliance counsel to a leading Asian automotive company and its principal US operating subsidiaries
- Antitrust compliance counsel to a leading Asian roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ocean carrier on a range of antitrust issues at the intersection of US antitrust laws and the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)
- Counsel for a leading Asian social network services company in connection with information requests from the FTC in a high-profile antitrust litigation
- Lead counsel for two leading Asian engineering consultancies in connection with corruption and fraud investigations initiated by the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) at the World Bank as well as the Office of Anticorruption and Integrity (OAI) at the Asian Development Bank
- Lead US antitrust counsel for one of the largest shipbuilding firms in the world in its proposed acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (DSME)*
- Counsel for Samsung Heavy Industries in a series of cross-border ICC and ad hoc arbitrations involving defense of claims from its customers concerning several large offshore oil and gas projects*
- Co-lead counsel for LG Chem, Ltd. in a DOJ grand jury antitrust investigation and multidistrict antitrust class actions involving allegations of price-fixing conspiracies for the sale of lithium-ion batteries*
- Co-counsel for Dongwon Industries Co., Ltd and its chief US subsidiary Starkist Co. in a DOJ grand jury antitrust investigation and multidistrict antitrust litigation arising from alleged conspiracies of canned tuna*
- Counsel for a leading movie theater operator in Asia Pacific and its affiliates to advise clients on a range of US regulatory and compliance areas
- Co-lead counsel for a leading CRT glass panel manufacturer in connection with a DOJ grand jury investigation involving allegations of price-fixing conspiracies in the CRT glass panel industry*
- Lead antitrust counsel for several affiliates of Samsung Group before the FTC and the DOJ in connection with several strategic group-restructuring transactions*
- Counsel for a leading Japanese manufacturer of automotive parts to obtain complete corporate leniency in a criminal antitrust grand jury investigation by the DOJ*
- Lead counsel before US antitrust agencies for Mori Seiki Co. Ltd–the leading Japanese manufacturer of machine tools in connection with its proposed acquisition of a leading German company*
- Counsel for Toshiba Corp. and its US affiliates to defend US civil antitrust class actions arising from DOJ’s grand jury antitrust investigations of global manufacturers of thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels*
- Counsel for Stolt-Nielsen S.A. in its precedent-setting court victory over the Antitrust Division’s first-ever attempt to unilaterally revoke the company’s immunity under the Division’s corporate antitrust leniency program*
- Counsel for a leading Asian manufacturer of energy storage systems (ESS) to locate and structure several strategic investment opportunities in the US*
- Counsel for a leading Asian telecommunications client to develop complete risk mitigation plans for certain export control and sanctions risks in the Middle East*
- Counsel for a leading Korean industrial components manufacturer to defend against a US anti-dumping investigation under the Trump administration*
- Counsel for Keystone Global Co. Ltd. – a leading Korean energy company – to initiate a civil litigation action and obtain favorable settlements in connection with its US energy acquisition transaction*
- Represented WebCT, Inc. in connection with obtaining antitrust clearance for its merger with Blackboard, Inc.*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.
Recognitions
- Legal 500 US, Antitrust: Civil Litigation & Class Actions, 2022
- Legal 500 US, Antitrust: Merger Control, 2019
- Legal 500 US, Antitrust: Cartel, 2018 to 2019
Community
- American Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section, member
- DC Bar Association, member
- California Bar Association, member
- International Bar Association, member
- Minority Corporate Counsel Association, member
- Korean American Bar Association, member
- International Association of Korean Lawyers, member
Credentials
Education
University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, JD, 1999
Johns Hopkins University, BS, magna cum laude, 1995
Johns Hopkins University, BA, magna cum laude, 1995
Admissions
District of Columbia
California
Courts/Agencies
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
US District Court for the Central District of California
US District Court for the Southern District of California
Languages
English
Korean
Japanese (basic)